Army Men: World War Review

Last year PS owners were treated to their very first Army Men game. The treat turned out to be more average than unique, Army Men 3D was an action game about two groups of Army Men (Green and Tan) who are enemies. Green is good and the Tans are bad, you were an Army Man walking around shooting Tans and accomplishing missions. After that another Army Men title came out, and it was Army Men: Air Attack. Air Attack was still mission based, but instead you shot down things from a chopper. Sarge's Heroes later received a PS version and frankly the game was bad. Now 3DO yet again releases an Army Men game, this one is called World War. In the past year we have gotten four PS Army Men games, and one N64 game.

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This is a definite step up over all the other Army Men games, the visuals have much improvement over Army Men: 3D and Sarge's Heroes. First off, the environments are much bigger and have great bright colors. Second off, environmental objects such as bushes, trees, and wood have a more solid and realistic look to them. For the most part the environments look great. My two complains are that the camera still moves in jerky motion and the characters need a little polish (they are plastic, give them a little shine and chrome). The CGs are okay, the ones I have seen are black and white, so they are nowhere near as colorful as the ones in Sarge's Heroes. The game engine isn't the best, things like pop-up keep it from being a huge step over the Army Men franchise. To me it was an enormous surprise when I saw Army Men: World War actually have pretty good visuals.

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The gameplay remains the same as 3D and Sarge's Heroes. You still walk around killing the Tans, and accomplishing missions but this time the game is easier and slightly more enjoyable. But still there seem to be things like strafing and peeking out to be missing. The aim is somewhat hard, because the game has no 1st person view, there is only a shoulder view to shoot with. But after a while you will eventually notice that all you have to do is just aim at the direction of your enemy and the bullets will automatically hit him. When the game starts out you see that the Tans have invaded most of the Greens' colony, the Greens have began fighting back to get their part back. World War is much better than its predecessors, the action is still somewhat complicated but you get used to it. Like any Army Men game, before starting a campaign you have a choice of playing a few practice missions. Army Men: World War is better than 3D and Sarge's Heroes, finally 3DO is making progress.

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This is by far the best sound an Army Men game has seen. Everything about it is crystal clear, birds chirping give the games atmosphere a great boost, the voices are clear, and the gunshots sound great. Sound effects have really showed improvement over the past three Army Men titles.

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The control is the same old same old, nothing has changed since Sarge's Heroes, it makes the game harder to play, and more annoying. The Dual Shock and analog is there, but analog has no sensitivity at all. Army Men: World War actually may be worth a rental, 3DO has finally out themselves back on the lane, let's just hope they progress.